Pelepas will handle 10m containers by 2005: Dr M
Business Times (S)
THE Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) in Johor will more than double its capacity to handle over 10 million container boxes by 2005, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad disclosed yesterday.
He said the fledgling port's second phase will add another 6 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) to its current capacity. Work will begin next month. The first phase of the Malaysian port currently handles 4.5 million TEUs.
'There's a lot of room for growth . . . PTP will be the biggest port (in the country) with more than 10 million TEUs by 2005,' he told reporters after touring Johor Port at Pasir Gudang yesterday. Johor Port and PTP are both controlled by tycoon Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary. The publicity-shy tycoon accompanied Dr Mahathir yesterday but did not speak to the press.
Dr Mahathir didn't indicate if the huge capacity at PTP will be fully used. But it's an open secret that Syed Mokhtar has been working overtime to woo more container shipping lines to cross over to PTP from Singapore. So far, he has bagged the two biggest customers at the Singapore port terminals operated by PSA Corporation: Maersk Sealand of Denmark and Evergreen Marine of Taiwan.
Together, the two heavyweights will channel over 3 million TEUs to the Malaysian transhipment hub.
The spike in volume has forced PTP to jump-start its second phase to cater to the possible relocation of a third major liner from Singapore.